Project

The Irish Catholic Church and the
Politics of Migration

Project Description

This project aims to critically examine the role of
the Irish Catholic Church as a key transnational actor in migration
politics (emigrant and immigrant) over the past 15 years. This involves
investigating the cultural role of the church in reproducing particular
social norms and values surrounding migration, its counter-cultural
potential via the civil society activities of some religious members,
and its transnational functioning in transferring religious and social
capital across borders.

The second phase of the project involves mapping
the respective roles of the Catholic Church in Ireland, philanthropic
foundation funders and pro-migrant NGOs as well as the state in shaping
the project of migrant integration in Ireland.

‘Making migration a public issue, the “network-making
power” of the Irish Catholic Church in M. Gilmartin and A. White (eds)
Migrations: Ireland in a Global World, Manchester University
Press (forthcoming).

‘Neoliberal governmentality, religion and the project of
migrant integration’ in Tuomas Martikainen and Franšois Gauthier (eds)
Religion in the Neoliberal Age. Volume 1: Political Economy and
Governance (Ashgate, forthcoming).

UL-Based Public-Seminar Series - Religion and Civil
Society

Conference papers on the project delivered at:

International Society for the Sociology of Religion
Conference Religion and Economy in a Global World. Aix-en-Provence,
30 June-3 July 2011.

CRONEM 7th Annual Conference Joint International
Multidisciplinary Conference with VU Institute for the Study of
Religion, Culture and Society (VISOR), Free University Amsterdam -
Global Migration and Multiculturalism: Religion, Society, Policy and
Politics, University of Surrey 28-29 June 2011.

AHRC, ESRC Innovative Methods in the Study of
Religion Conference, London. 29-30 March 2010
Dialogicality Between and Within Institutions at 6th International
Conference on the Dialogical Self, Athens, Greece